Last year (January 31, 2006) I talked about the joy of shooting an Open Gun in IPSC competition, and about the various trials and tribulations of loading 20,000+ rounds per year of .38 Super ammunition with the XL650.
One of the main points was that, after over 10 years of using the Dillon press with no Vendor Mainenance, I had neglected to send my XL650 back to the manufacturer for maintenance.
It is embarassing to report that once more, I have failed to take advantage of the slow-competition-period of Winter to get my machinery in for a much needed maintenance rebuild.
The fact is, I just can't bring myself to do without my reloading press long enough to get all of the niggling little problems fixed. Instead, I keep tinkering with the press in an attempt to find the main cause of problems (usually adjustment which affects the indexing ... and almost everything you do affects the indexing!) because of my neurotic fears that I won't get it back before the shooting season starts again.
the problem is, I figure that if anyone is going to send their reloading press back to Dillon for inspection and general repair, it's going to happen during the winter. How can they get all of the presses repaired and back in time for the 2007 shooting season?
The best time to send my press back to Dillon is probably during the Summer, but I can't afford to be without it in the height of the shooting season!
Good Heavens! I might miss a match!
[Sigh]
Instead, I tinker and tweak and adjust the various sub-systems, and eventually I find somethng that isn't set up right (my error, not Dillon's) and I just ... keep on loading ammunition.
The latest problem was that the turret doesn't index correctly, so it's difficult to seat primers. I discovered this winter that I had installed the part which shoves the case into battery with the turret correctly, so it didn't cycle the turret consistently. I ermoved TWO adjustment screws, threw one away, and installed the other screw correctly. I had been using them to pressure-fit against the moving parts, when a single screw will actually insert into a designed channel which assures a correct fit.
The machine is still not perfect. The fallible part is the return spring which causes the primer detent lever to cycle completely, so it picks up the next hole in the primer disk. The spring is too weak. This is a part which I replace about twice a year, with very little effect. As a consequence, the primer detent lever doesn't always reset to cycle the primer to the proper position, and sometimes I find that the primer disk doesn't rotate far enough to pick up the next primer.
I deal with this by manually resetting the position of the lever, but this slows down my reloading speed.
Maybe someday Dillon will announce a general upgrade to that spring, and send me one which is more powerful.
In the meantime, while I search for a spring which otherwise fits the specifications of the OEM part (but is stronger), I'll use Thumb Power to make that lever move the last full measure.
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